An online survey on practice and opinion on preoperative viral serology testing among anesthesiologists, surgeons, and public health professionals

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Currently, there is no recommendation or guideline on routine preoperative viral serology testing. This online questionnaire-based survey was conducted to explore the current practice and opinion across the country (India). Methodology: After obtaining permission from the investigators' affiliated institute, a set of 12 questions with multiple choices was sent to the anesthesiologists, surgeons, and public health professionals using the Google Form. The participants anonymously completed this online-based questionnaire. The responses were downloaded in the Excel format and further expressed in absolute number and percentage scale. Interprofessional comparisons were made using Fisher's exact test (INSTAT software from GraphPad Prism Software Inc., La Jolla, CA, USA), and P 0.05) was found between the anesthesiologists and the surgeons. Even the anesthesiologists, as well as the surgeons, had similar opinions and practices (all P > 0.05) except the anesthesiologists who were having statistically significantly higher knowledge about the inability to detect case by serology testing during the window period (P = 0.02). Conclusion: Preoperative viral (hepatitis B virus surface antigen, anti-hepatitis C virus, and human immunodeficiency virus I and II) testing is very rampant as routine, and nine out of ten practitioners opine for the mandatory routine practice in India.